Thanks for the tip AV. I plan to return there soon.

So if that’s your plan, it sounds like Zachary Robbins nailed it. The
meadow is off the Little East Fork trail, off an unmarked trail (logging
road) that connects the LEF trail with the Fork Mountain trail.

I
personally wouldn’t have started at the Black Balsam parking lot for
that one. I would start at the trailhead for either the Little East Fork
trail at the Boy Scout camp or the Fork Mountain trailhead on 215. The
way you were going you’d have to ascend all the way back up the way you
came or ascend the Fork Mountain Trail and
take that back up to Ivestor Gap.

http://www.brendajwiley.com/fork_mountain.html

About midway on the Little East Fork trail between the initial crossing junction of the river and the Daniel Boone Camp end there’s 2 side trails that go up, easy to find. A lady I met said those both go up to different points along Fork Ridge but aren’t official NF trails. She also mentioned since we were standing very close to it, there’s a side creek on the north side of the river, near the biggest waterfall along Little East Fork, that has a significant large waterfall that has no official designation. That might be a lot of bushwhacking and high up the mountain though, she was checking this out during the winter.

No, our plan was to take the Ivestor Gap Trail to Little East Fork Trail and search for an elusive meadow along the ridge between Shining Rock and Birdstand Mountain. We have since determined with Google Earth that the meadow is located on Fork Mountain Ridge.